Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Jenna Coleman, Tom Glynn-Carney, Bo Bragason, Laura Marcus, Lorna Nickson Brown, Ruby Stokes, Effy Buckles Jones, Weruche Opia, Archie Renaux, Amelia Bullmore, Ralph Ineson, Dominic Coleman, Niamh Blackshaw, Philip Hill-Pearson, Elliot Cowan, David Ajala, Matthew McNulty, Joshua Gannon, Shannon Watson, Georgina Rich, Arthur Hughes, Nina Barker-Francis, Miya Barker-Francis, Clare Calbraith, Rick Warden, Anna Wilson-Jones, Eleanor Nawal, Adam Astill, Ruaridh Mollica, Jonny Fines, Peter Sullivan, Philip Whitchurch, Amer Nazir, Natalie Gumede.
The sins of our childhood are often hidden from view by our own inability to recognise the signs that we were doing wrong, that the declaration of hormones and the drive to be seen as an adult was merely an excuse to behave recklessly, hastily without care and with a rashness of irresponsibility that acts as defiance in the face of accusations that at that point in life we are playing not only with fire, but with a ticking time bomb primed and ready to explode in our thirties or forties.
The devastation of loss, of a child taken from our streets, the departure of a teenager through the thoughtlessness of another’s actions, comes home to roost in Cat Jones’ almost stringently observed The Jetty.
The four-part series is a tough examination, and arguably much-needed conversation, on how we view teenagers as objects, for some in the realm of ownership, for some the insidious spectre of youthful sex, but always with the mixed messages and signals that come between treating them as a child, but as adults with repercussions when actions dictate we treat them severely, making them pay for mistakes that in many ways they cannot help because of biological differences and genetics.
The hard truth behind the façade of a woven story forgotten is at the heart of The Jetty, a set of circumstances driven together by a factor of what is illegal sexual activity and the blind eye cast by the supposed adult in the room, nobody at all comes out of the story well, and some are doomed to live with their neglect for ever.
It is a striking tale, perhaps only let down by its finale, a lie compounded of the truth that has no defence except to act as a recognition that the dead cannot justify their actions nor defend them in a court of law; and yet the drama itself is handled calmly, gushing with insistence, and portrayed admirably by the likes of Jenna Coleman, Amelia Bullmore, Ruby Stokes, and Matthew McNulty.
A series of intent, actively demanding conversation, guarded in its vigilance until the necessary reveal, The Jetty is a thoughtful piece that requires prudent watching.
Ian D. Hall